ARP grant funding up in air Trump administration freezes new EPA grants

In the midst of grant negotiations between the Environmental Protection Agency and Libby’s Asbestos Resource Program, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration issued an order that halts all pending contract approvals and grant awards from the EPA, according to the Associated Press on Wednesday.

The Lincoln County Asbestos Resource Program is a public health program that was established in 2012 with the mission of reducing exposure to Libby amphibole asbestos in the Libby Asbestos Superfund Site and surrounding areas. The ARP is funded through a cooperative agreement from the EPA, but their existing grant was put on temporary hold back in Sept., 2016, after the Environmental Protection Agency evaluated the legality of past grant spending. the evaluation began after the ARP discovered in May that R. Allen Payne and his legal firm, Doney Crowley Bloomquist Payne UDA, had received payments from the grant funds, which were found to be against federal grant funding regulations.

ARP manager Nick Raines told the Lincoln County Commissioners on Jan. 11 that the ARP was operating on a negative cash balance after the EPA assured them that they were going to be reimbursed for the money after the evaluation is over.

As of now, no one knows whether or not the ARP will be reimbursed.

According to Raines, the ARP knows only what’s been reported in other news organizations — which isn’t much considering the “media blackout” that was issued along with the halt to funding. Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters communications clampdown at EPA wasn’t directed by the White House, according to the Associated Press.